our tournament is successfully over. We would like to Thank You for Your participation!We hope that You enjoyed this event and beautiful Prague too.

WAKO K-1 European cup, hosted 216 fighters form 16 countries and 96 clubs. Amazing full weight categories brought great fights and fantastic atmosphere during three days. Some categories had more than 20 fighters. We seen lots of famous fighters who came from different part around the world. Whole tournament finished with great gala show, where public cloud watch final fights of men and women categories with additional one PRO prestige fight in heavyweights category between Cyril Pohl (CZE) and Prince Aounallah(FRA).

WAKO K-1 European cup became prestige tournament not only thanks to great fights but also for amazing prize money awards and trophy,belts for each men and women fighter! This year fighters received together AMAZING 23.000EUR!Congratulation to ALL winners!

Behalf of Czech kickboxing UNION (ČSFU), president Jiri Mulač and organizing committee, we would like to THNAK YOU for Your support. Together with You, we made WAKO K-1 European tournament again successfull!Especially we would like to thank also our honored guest Mr.Romeo Deša from Croatia, who is member of WAKO IF organizing committee and WAKO Europe board member, for your support and cooperation. Thank You also Mr. Yury Lakhtikov, who is Chairman of WAKO IF Ring sport committee and Mr.Sami Savo who is Chairmans of WAKO European ring sport committee for their excellent work and at least thank You to all referees for great job.

The Bulgarian center of Bansko was the theater of 2 WAKO referees summer camps.

27-30th July 2018: in Bulgarian summer and winter center Bansko, Bulgarian Confederation of Kickboxing and MT hosted second WAKO International Summer Referee Camp for tatami referees and first WAKO International Summer Referee Camp for ring referees. Bansko is in the south-western part of Bulgaria, 160 km from the capital of Bulgaria, near Pirin Natural Park, under mountain range Pirin with highest point Vihren (high 2914 m).

During 4 days of seminar, referees rehearsed their knowledge of theoretical and practical rules and analyzed several problematic cases from previous WAKO Championships. The seminar was led by Brian Beck - Chairman of WAKO Tatami Referee Committee, the lectures were held by Brian Beck, Karl Wilson, Manuel Doria, Ivo Vodopivec and Gina Engelhardt-Aué. Alex Engelhardt presented the SportData computer system.

From 1. to 3. August, in same hotel, the 1st WAKO International Summer Referee Camp for ring referees was held. At this second part of camp participated 61 WAKO referees from 15 countries (14 domestic and 47 from other countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech, Estonia, France, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Spain, and Ukraine - 8 women and 53 men).

The seminar was led by Yuri Lakhtikov - Chairman of WAKO Ring Referee Committee, lectures were held by Yuri Lakhtikov and Romeo Desa, and the practical part by Yuri Lakhtikov, Marco Pacor and Tomislav Novosel.

Organizers of the first part of seminars were Ivan Ivanov, Denitsa Milenkova, Ivan Georgiev; the organizers of the second part were Georgi Georgiev, Dimitar Spasov, Stanislava Boytcheva and Ivan Georgiev.

They provided great organization and hospitality for all camp participants.

Kickboxers from Bulgaria participated for the purposes of practical parts of the seminar. The clubs present for the tatami practical lessons were Ikken, CSKA Sofia, Skaptopara, Optix, Aabc and Aris. For the ring practical lessons we had the following clubs: Armeec, Boil, Patriot, Pride and Glory). The athletes were all very patient and tireless, and demonstrated to be excellent presenters of various problematic situations where referees and judges practiced their skills. At the end of all demonstration exercises, the young Bulgarian kickboxers received a great applause from all the participants.

Upon invitation of the organizers, both seminars were attended by Romeo Desa - Special Adviser of WAKO President and WAKO Europe Board Member, who held several meetings and talks with WAKO Referee Tatami Committee and committees' chairmen Brian Beck and Yuri Lakhtikov. During those meetings several things about rules, rule's changes, procedures of changes, future improvements of camp and seminars were discussed, as well as the cooperation between WAKO Organizing and Referee Committees on WAKO Championships.

All referees were very satisfied with all what was prepared and organized by the local organizers, they gave all the best marks for seminars, new knowledge, programs of seminars, presentations and practical lessons, accommodation and food in a beautiful hotel. All promised "we will come next year".

Also, very important to emphasize, Bulgarian federation was sponsor of both events, without its financial support it would be hard to organize both camps in this successful format. To all of this, both WAKO Referee Committees thank Bulgarian kickboxing and MT confederation as well as members of the local organizing committee.

3rd International Turkish Open Kickboxing Tournament in memory of Alperen Atabay was held in PGS Kremlin Palace Hotel, Antalya, Turkey from 5th to 8th April 2018. The tournament has 2353 participants from 27 countries and 4 continents. This year’s event became one of the biggest in the world, with highest number of participants in ring sports and with one of the few highest overall. The event started with opening speeches of Mr. Salim KAYICI, President of Turkish Kickboxing Federation and WAKO Europe Vice President and Mr. Roy BAKER, President of WAKO Europe.

The participation of 257 competitors from 69 clubs, once again confirmed the interest in this Cup. The best WAKO competitors in the ring K-1 discipline gathered in Belgrade. There was also a competition in Kick light tatami discipline.

During the Cup the Sportdata electronic scoring system was used, thus simplifying, accelerating and transparently showing the scoring quality.

At any moment, the audience could have an insight into the status of the scoreboard on the screens next to the ring.

The final bouts picked up for the Gala evening show expressed the whole beauty of this sport.

The audience was able to enjoy the 13 matches, among which competed the WAKO World champions as well as the participants of the World Games.

Of all participating countries, Serbia resulted the first one, with 44 gold, 52 silver and 64 bronze medals. The host country had also the highest number of registered participants (160), and in the final order moved farther away from the other medal winners.

The second nation in terms of success was Bosnia and Herzegovina (gold 6, silver 5, bronze 4) and third one was Slovakia (gold 6, silver 4, bronze 3).

Competition held on 4 tatamis and 2 ring.Event was heald in a sport atmosphere.

Balkan Open 2018 another great WAKO event has been successfully organised traditionaly 10 times.Top level of organisation has shown that,year after year this signification tournament has improved in every way-from sports,competing,overality and organisation to hospitality.

Both female and male kickboxers has shown high quality in their performances and presented all the beauty of sport to big crowd of spectators.

By this we would like to show our respect and thank to Promotor,Mr.Alija Ogrić

Another great WAKO event has been successfully organised in Sarajevo, capitol of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This time WAKO GRAND PRIX BIH 2018 hosted over 530 competitors of all ages from 78 clubs representing 6 countries. Top level of organisation has shown that, year after year this significant tournament has improved in every way - from sports, competing, overall quality and organisation, to hospitality. Both female and male kickboxers has shown high quality in their performances and presented all the beauty of our sport to big crowd of spectators. By this we would like to show our respect and thank to Promoter, Mr Nermin Basovic and "KICKBOXING ACADEMY Ilidza” for his great job. More info on:facebook.com/kickboxing.ilidza/http://grandprixbih-sarajevo.com/

In the period from 9 to 11 February 2018 European Cup "Karlovac Open 2018." was held in Karlovac, which brought together 1866 competitors from 28 countries and 177 clubs. The competition was held under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian Olympic Committee, the Croatian Central State Office for Sport and with support from local community and organized by the Croatian kickboxing Federation and Kickboxing club "Tigar" as executive organizer (Mr. Zoran Cicvara)

The competition was held in two sports halls in order to achieve the highest quality. In the big sports hall there were fights in the tatami disciplines (Point Fighting, Light Contact, Kick Light and Musical Forms), while in the another sport hall a competition was held in ring disciplines (Low Kick, Full Contact and K-1).

On the first day of the competition, on Friday, February 9, team battles and musical forms were held, followed by an evening gala event in which the selected contestants in the 8 fight fought for the special and very attractive kickboxing belts.

On the second day of the competition, on Saturday, February 10, a lot of competition (in point fighting) was held in the city sport hall, while at the same time a fights in ring disciplines was held in the gymnasium hall - qualifications in all ring disciplines.

On the third day of the competition on Sunday February 11 were held in the city sport hall of the light contact and Kick light disciplines, while the finals of all categories in the ring disciplines were held in the smaller gymnasium sport hall.

The competition ended without any serious injury, which can be thanked to very high-quality judges - more than 70 judges and referees from almost all participated countries (chief referee for tatami sports was Gina Englehardt from Netherland and chief referees for ring sports were Zoran Šimurina from Serbia and Tomislav Novosel from Croatia) who have done their job at a very high level of professionalism. The WAKO organizing committee that arrived in Karlovac has prepared the competition program so well that, despite a very large number of competitors and fights, each day the competition ended around 8 pm.

The 13th edition of the Golden Glove - an international event and a must for local kickboxing lovers - was held on January 20th and 21th in the new Zoppas Arena, near the city of Conegliano.

The Arena housed 8 squares and a giant screen that projected images from the previous editions, and staged numerous competing fighters - about 85 clubs and 1000 entries - the half of which were international athletes from a dozen of foreign countries.

The Wako Europe Cup Golden Glove 2018 - an event supported by the World Association of Kickboxing Organizations - was arranged by the Europe Center One club in association with the Venetian Regional Committee of FIKBMS - the Italian Federation - and with the help of ZenShin, an association from Mareno di Piave.

The competitions started on Saturday with 15 K1 matches, a style that was staged for the first time in this Europe Cup. The day continued with the Light Contact and the KickLight divisions, and with the Tag Team in the evening. Sunday was dedicated to the individual Point Fighting, to the amazing Grand Championship, and the TopTen Kombat Zone tournament shows.

The opening ceremony stirred deep emotions, with the drums and the flag-wavers of the association "Dama Castellana" (Lady of the Castle), who preceded the entry of referees and children holding the signs of the participating nations (Italy, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Holland, Slovenia, Ukraine, United Kingdom). The President of FIKBMS, Donato Milano, proudly expressed the importance of pairing culture and sport: “When sport is combined with culture and tradition, success is assured, as Italy has a history that must be remembered, and sport is part of it”.

“What a show is this Golden Glove! - the promoter of the event Raffaele Di Paolo said enthusiastically - year after year it is growing in numbers, awards, quality and number of styles. The amazing staffs involved have excellently managed the registrations, allowing to carry out the competition within the scheduled time, thus providing serenity and concentration to fighters and coaches!”

The TopTen Kombat Zone, a competition at the highest level, saw the knockout of top fighters from all over Europe. After an exciting performance, the Italian fighters Riccardo Albanese (Fire Generation Team) and Martina Rossi (HMD Italy Team) won the belt, the original handmade Murano glass trophy, and the cash prize.

The Men Grand Championship was also amazing and displayed a podium dominated by the Hungarian Kiraly Team - composed by the Veres brothers (Richard and Roland) - the Slovenian athlete Kolander Tadei, and Riccardo Albanese (third place).

Italy won the highest place of the podium in the Women Grand Championship thanks to Martina Rossi (HMD Italia Team), and the third place with Deborah De Vita (KBA Team).

At the end of these two days of amazing challenges, the President of the Europe Center One club, Luca Terrin, proud of his staff, told us: "We are already devising new ideas for the next year. This competition is constantly growing and we are confident that the National Federation is keeping an eye on an event that for years has been attracting to Italy formidable top fighters. Meeting high level athletes and coaches help us improve, and I would like to thank all teams and referees for their contribute, and our main sponsor, TOP TEN Italia, that provided the equipment to set up a wonderful arena and gifted each winner with a beautiful pair of gloves”.

The competition was sponsored by CONI (the Italian Olympic Committee) of Veneto, the Province of Treviso and the Municipality of Conegliano. The next edition of the Wako European Cup Golden Glove 2019, is already in progress.